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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will chair the next meeting of the GST Council on December 21 in Jaisalmer, a senior finance ministry official said. The Council was initially scheduled to meet in November. The delay is due to the Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, and then the Winter Session of Parliament.
According to the Informist, the GST Council meeting will likely take up two pending issues that have been discussed by the respective Group of Ministers – the lowering of goods and services tax on health and life insurance premiums to nil from the current 18 per cent, and the much-awaited rate rationalisation on some mass-consumed items. The Council's 54th meeting was held on September 9.
In a meeting held on October 19, the Group of Ministers on life and health insurance decided to propose complete exemption of GST on health and life premiums. The Group of Ministers is headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary and includes ministers from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Meghalaya, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.
The Group of Ministers on rate rationalisation, which also met on Oct 19, decided to propose lowering the GST on packaged water above 20 litres to 5 per cent from 18 per cent, on bicycles costing less than Rs 10,000 to 5 per cent from 12 per cent, and on exercise notebooks to 5 per cent from 12 per cent. This move is aimed at making essential products more affordable, especially for middle-class and lower-income groups.
The rate rationalisation aims to raise taxes on luxury and sin goods and provide relief on essential items. The Group of Ministers on rate rationalisation, also headed by Choudhary, has Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal, Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna, Karnataka Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, West Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya and Rajasthan Medical and Health Services Minister Gajendra Singh as members.
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